Pacifica is swapping 97 acres of land it owns with 35 acres the Port District owns. Pacifica intends to build a 250-room hotel and 1,500 condominiums.

Chula Vista  After nearly eight years of planning, negotiating and waiting, the Pacifica Cos. received a key approval yesterday from the San Diego Unified Port District to move ahead with a land swap needed for a hotel and residential development on Chula Vista’s beleaguered bayfront.

The Port District’s board of commissioners voted 5-1 in support of allowing the company to swap 97 acres it owns on the northern end of the bayfront near the Chula Vista Nature Center for the Port District’s 35 acres just east of the marina.

Pacifica plans to build a 250-room hotel and a 1,500-unit condominium project on the site.

“This was an extraordinary day for me personally,” said Mayor Cheryl Cox. “I’ve been involved with the bayfront since 1976. For Pacifica to stay the course is commendable.”

There have been many developers over the past 30 years who wanted to be the first to convert Chula Vista’s largely industrial waterfront to a first-class destination. One — Gaylord Entertainment — wowed the city with plans for a hotel, convention center, retail shops and jobs before walking away from the project in the fall of 2008 because of challenges with financing, the state’s complex permitting process and a rising bill for improvements such as new sewer and water lines.

Ash Israni of the Pacifica Cos., which since 2002 has been plotting a hotel and condominiums, has stuck with California’s sometimes maddening coastal development process.

“I don’t think other people would have hung in there as long as he did,” said Pacifica project manager Allison Rolfe.

Early on, an environmental assessment determined that Israni’s 97 acres were too close to protected wetlands to be developed. Swapping it for a smaller swath of Port District land would allow him to continue his plan to build.

The exchange is the first of many approvals Pacifica will need before it can build. The Port District must approve Chula Vista’s bayfront environmental report, which is expected in May. Pacifica also will go before the State Lands Commission, which supervises land swaps to make sure the public is not getting fleeced. The state Coastal Commission also must approve the city’s bayfront master plan, and then Pacifica will have to go through a yearlong city planning process before once again going before the Coastal Commission for approval.

“We stayed committed because we knew the exchange was the right thing to do from a planning point of view, and it also responded to the public’s desire,” Israni said.